Friday, December 12, 2008

Sinulog team chess tournament

Frank “Boy” Pestaño
Chessmos

OUR Club has been in existence for the past 18 years or so and although we manage to have an event during Sinulog time, next year’s happening will be a big one, thanks to the help of Councilor Jack Jakosalem, the City Council and the Cebu City Sports Commission.

We are happy to announce that there will be an open team tournament during next year’s Sinulog. It will be a seven-round Swiss format with time control at one hour per player, play to finish.

Playing dates are two rounds on Jan. 9, three rounds on the 10th and the final two rounds on the 11th. Venue will be announced later.

Team composition will be four regular players and, if you wish, an alternate, although it is not necessary. A team can only have one titled player (GM, IM, FM, NM).

Scoring will be based on the Match Point system with a win worth two points (3.5-1.5,3-1 or 2.5-1.5); a draw, one point (2-2); and a loss, zero.

The following Olympiad and Fide rules will be strictly followed: 1.) Ringing of cell phone will also mean an automatic disqualification. 2.) Prior agreement to fix the match will be nullified and the penalty will be determined by a committee composed of current Cepca president Renato Casia as the chairman, with Joe Atillo and Jun Olis as members.

Other guidelines in effect are: teams formed by any Cepca member must include the member as a regular player, not as an alternate. Schools who are interested to join can invite a titled player as guest and all the rest must be students of that school. Out-of-town teams and companies are also welcome.

Tournament arbiters are Marvin Ruelan (Fide arbiter) and Bob Tojong.

Prizes are: P25,000, trophy and gold medals for the champion; P15,000 and silver medals for the runner-up; P10,000 and bronze medals for the third placer. The fourth placer will get P5,000, while the fifth and sixth placers will get P3,000 and P1,000, respectively. Board 1 to Board 4 winners will receive P1,000, each.

The registration per team is P1,000 and we also urge the teams to come in proper uniforms.

Lapu-Lapu Festival. A selection of Cepca’s and Lapu-Lapu City’s best woodpushers will be slugging it out for the top prize in the 2008 Lapu-Lapu City X-Mas Chess Invitational this Sunday at 1 p.m. at the Gun-ob National High School.

This five-round Swiss system tournament is open to all Cepcans and Lapu-Lapu players only. Cepca’s Dante Arguelles, Jojo Muralla, Mandy Baria, Maggi Dionson, Joe Atillo, Gideon Lauta, Felix Poloyapoy, Jun Quidlat and Atty. Boy Tumulak have already pledged to join the tournament. Other interested members may contact former Cepca president and tournament director Jun Olis at 340-1355 or 0910-347-6907.

Prizes in kind up to the 10th place are provided, while trophies for the first three places are donated by the Lapu-Lapu City Sports Commission.

Talisay City Chess. The monthly tournament for December will take place at the South Central Square, Lawaan tomorrow and Sunday. Format is seven rounds Swiss and time control is 30 minutes per player, play to finish.

Attractive prizes are at stake and registration is free for kiddies. Junior players will pay P50, while regular players will pay P80. There is a 50 percent discount for club members.

The tournament starts at 10 a.m. for kiddies and at 1 p.m. for the regular players and juniors. The November champion was Michael Pinar and the kiddies winner was Diego Claro.

You can register by texting former Cepca president and tournament director Manny Manzanares at 0915-720-5457 and pay on site.

The Christmas party for Cepca members and their families will be on Dec. 21 at my residence in Mabolo. We will also have a blitz tournament.

Friday, December 5, 2008

Little known episode about Bobby Fischer

Frank 'Boy' Pestaño
Chessmoso

THE 38th Chess Olympiad in Dresden, Germany is over. Although I would like to write more about this event as it is one of the best Olympiads ever (next to Manila 1992!) all my articles for November have been about this event and it is about time to dwell on another matter.

During the wake of the late Job Tabada, father of Jobannie who is one of the strongest chess-playing member of Cepca now based in Dubai, there was a discussion among the club members about the late Bobby Fischer and what happened to his estimated fortune of P140 million, not including the gold holdings which he left in an Icelandic bank. Also not included is the royalty from the forthcoming movie, Bobby Fischer Goes to War set for release in 2010.

From 2000 to 2002, Fischer lived in Baguio City. He resided in the same compound as Eugenio Torre, a close friend.

Fischer played tennis at the Baguio Country Club, where he met a woman named Marilyn Young. Together, they had a daughter named Jinky, born in 2002 (or 2001) at the Saint Louis University, Baguio City, Sacred Heart Hospital.

The money is part of the prize ($3.8million) that he got for the rematch against Boris Spassky in Sveti Stefan and Belgrade in 1992 that was not allowed by the United Nations due to the civil war in Bosnia. This was the reason why he was wanted by the United States government. His passport was revoked and he was arrested in Japan.

With the help of some Icelandic chess friends, Fischer was able to obtain an Icelandic passport and was flown out of Japan in March 2005

The money was held for a long time in a Swiss bank account but the bank refused to deal with Fischer shortly after he moved to Iceland, and this money was transferred there (Iceland).

Although it has been mentioned that Bobby married Miyoko Watai, the President of the Japanese Chess Association, his daughter has precedence. Also, in an interview, Bobby was quoted in German television as saying that he has never been married.

“I have with me a copy of the passports, pictures and bank accounts of Fischer’s seven-year-old daughter,” Sammy Estimo, lawyer of Marilyn Young, said. “I believe we have substantial proof to back the claims of Marilyn Young and her daughter Jinky. They even stayed with him in Iceland for three weeks in September 2005.”

Also Bobby was in contact with them almost daily via cell phone and sent them monthly euro remittances.

The deadline for receiving claims to the estate of the deceased chess legend was May 17, 2008, or three months after Fischer died of renal failure on January 17, this year. The Probate Court had already received the claim folder of Jinky Young before this date.

I still don’t know by now if Jinky has already received her rightful share of the inheritance as this whole episode happened early this year. There has been no news and we probably won’t know unless the parties concerned would reveal it to the public. And then there is the IRS who is also trying to recover money from Fischer in back taxes.

In Wikipedia, it was mentioned that the dispute between Jinky Young and Watai was settled amicably in the Icelandic courts.

CORUS 2009. One of the most prestigious tournament in the chess calendar is Corus in Holland in January next year.

Wesley So has been invited to play in the C group where he is seeded No.1. If he makes good, he will be invited to big time tournaments all over the world especially in Europe and can be a multi-millionaire in a short time.

His closest adversaries will be David Howell of England and Abhijeet Gupta of India who played in Mandaue last year.